Thelma Thon-Sevey McDarment

Artline StudiosOil Painting

Featured Artist September, 2014

"I was born and raised in Northern Manitoba in an Icelandic community, very small, no near neighbors.” Thelma Thon-Sevey McDarment came from Norwegian and Icelandic people, old country folks as she describes them. She didn’t have playmates because no one lived nearby. So her mother provided opportunities to imagine and to create with pencils and paper. When Thelma’s family arrived in the United States, she talked and dressed differently than her peers. No more one-room school house with only ten or twelve students. Sensing her differences, creating art became Thelma’s way of coping, of discovery in her new surroundings, of finding comfort in the familiar. Thelma says her father was her biggest influence because he thought she could do anything. He encouraged her to pursue her interests. Mr. Hayes, Thelma’s art teacher in junior high school in Lewiston, Idaho, also encouraged her to pursue visual art and advised Thelma to take lots of classes from a variety of local artists.In the early 1960’s when Thelma’s children were small, even though there wasn’t much time or room for a studio, she started teaching decorative painting she’d learned from a book. When the group of students wanted to learn more from her, Thelma started teaching traditional oil painting. In 1985, she received a letter of invitation to travel to St. Louis, Missouri, to meet Bob Ross and become one of his certified teachers. Her employer at the time allowed her to take time off from work to follow Bob around and learn the ‘Wet on Wet’ method of painting. Thelma became certified in 1987 and started teaching in Spokane in the evenings. Still working her nine-to-five job on weekdays, Thelma spent weekends teaching all over Washington and Oregon, Idaho and Montana. She even flew to Juneau, Alaska, to teach. Thelma followed her middle school teacher’s advice, and over the years, has taken classes from many accomplished artists, including many of the television artists: Gary Jenkins and his flowers, Buck Paulson with acrylics and oil paints, Jerry Yarnell with acrylics, Jeff Tift and his acrylic animal paintings, Dana Jester’s animals in oil, Valerie Stewart’s portrait painting, and Thelma’s favorite and good friend, Robert Sherwood, with his ‘spotlighting’ technique. In her mind, he’s one of the best seascape artists around. In 2001, Thelma’s husband had heart problems and after traveling for four years in an RV, he wanted to settle down in the Colville area where he grew up. He and Thelma couldn’t find any houses they liked with enough shop and studio space in that area, so they looked here in Chewelah and found their spot. Unfortunately, Thelma’s husband died soon after they bought their place. The Chewelah Arts Guild is fortunate that Thelma discovered the group. She has been an integral part of several events produced by the Arts Guild. “I needed to find something here to do in order to meet people and find my place in the community. I was fortunate enough to find the Arts Guild where I found some very good friends who do amazing things for this community.” Thelma, still taking her teacher’s advice to heart, currently takes a painting class from Gail Johannes, learning more about working with watercolors and enjoying it thoroughly. Generous in spirit, in community and in Art, Thelma continues to paint and teach painting, matting, framing, and beginning wood and scroll saw work in her Chewelah studio, Artline Studios. Her paintings are part of private collections in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Europe. She can be reached at: seveytnc@centurytel.net, or 509-721-0430.